ISKCON Food Relief Foundation is helping the Govt by implementing the project under the
brand name of Annamrita. The aim of the Annamrita’s Midday meal Project is to provide
nutritious cooked meals to students in Municipal and Govt aided schools as well as non
aided slum schools.

Mid Day meals were started by the government, as an incentive to increase enrolment in schools, reduce dropout rates and tackle the issue of classroom hunger. The aim is to give children a healthy education and reduce child labour and guarantee a nutritious and sanctified meal daily. Ultimately, a healthy and educated future generation.

The genesis of ISKCON Food Relief Foundation dates back to 1974, when Srila Prabhupada noticed a group of village children fighting with street dogs over scraps of food, shocked and saddened by what he saw, he turned to his disciples and said, “No one within a ten mile radius of our temples should go hungry”. Being inspired by Srila Prabhupada’s vision, IFRF partnered with the Government of India when they launched a strategic program in 1994 called the Midday Meal Scheme to fight two of the most pressing problems of India – hunger and illiteracy, ISKCON Food Relief Foundation saw a great opportunity to support by providing children with the right nutrition to supplement their education and attract them to school.

Annamrita is a strategic project which helps the Government to resolve two interrelated problems namely Malnutrition and Illiteracy.
Our centralized hi-tech ISO certified kitchens are technology intensive models that can be efficiently scaled and replicated.
The project is transparent, professionally managed, run by a board of trustees with the support of the Advisory Committee and Steering Committee formed by corporate heads and experts in various fields.
Annamrita also provides tax exemption to its donors as well as FCRA facility for overseas donors

The menu is prescribed by the Government. It consists of rice based preparations in most of the regions and additionally wheat based preparations in Northern India. Dishes include, sambhar khichdi, moong dal khichdi, pulao, mixed vegetables, Chapati Bhaji, Puri Bhaji, idlis etc. We serve 6 different dishes, 6 days of the week.

The reports issued by the Govt on the basis of independent studies carried out from time to
time to assess the impact have shown that some of the quantifiable benefits are in terms of
increased enrolment of children in school, enhanced classroom performance by children,
improved nutritional status and reduced malnutrition levels.

There is a certain contribution (Rice/Wheat) from the Government of India and a varying
contribution from the respective State Governments in terms of a basic cooking charge
ie. Rs 3.50 for Primary and Rs.5.20 for Secondary section, per day per child as cooking charges.

There is NO contribution from the Government either Central or State towards setting up centralized kitchens. ISKCON Food Relief Foundation raises funds from individuals, institutions, foundations and corporations to meet these costs.

The free rice provided by Govt is of BPL (Below Poverty Line) variety which needs to be
cleaned thoroughly resulting in substantial rejection and heavy cost of processing,
transportation and warehousing.

ISKCON raises funds from its devotees and donors specifically for carrying out its activities such as spreading the teachings of Sanatan Dharma as propounded in Vedic scriptures like Bhagwad Gita. To do this it builds beautiful temples and carries out related humanitarian activities for the spiritual upliftment of people at large. As funds raised by ISKCON are specific donations received for such activities the same cannot be diverted for any other purpose. Similarly funds raised by Annamrita for the Mid Day Meal Project cannot be utilised for the spiritual activities of ISKCON.

These are two different activities and therefore ISKCON has two separate charitable trusts for carrying out these two different kinds of humanitarian activities. Annamrita and ISKCON are two separate entities with different and specific purposes.

Annamrita has 2 flagship programs-Tithi Bhoj – Poor children feeding on special occasions through IFRFKhichdi Drive – Annamrita hosts a khichdi tasting at a corporate office, wherein, employees get to have the same khichdi which is being served to the children across schools that day. This activity not only helps us fundraise but also creates a greater awareness for our cause.

Full Name: to identify and address you as donorEmail Id: to send you the soft copy of the receipt.Complete Postal Address: to send you the hard copy of the receipt.Contact numbers: so that our representative can speak to you.PAN Card number: to process your Tax exemption certificate. Date of Birth (Preferred): to greet the donor on their birth day

All these details are mandatory and donations would not be processed unless these details are provided. The cheque is to be drawn in favour of ISKCON Food Relief Foundation.

Annamrita has also set-up a hi tech kitchen at Hinduhridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Medical College & Dr. R.N. Cooper Municipal General Hospital to serve the underprivileged patients and their relatives.

Donate by Cheque / Draft One can make a cheque in favour of ISKCON Food Relief Foundation and send it to Our Administrative Address. Alternatively one can call and we can try and arrange for our authorized person to pick up the cheque

Donate in Person One can make a donation by cash or cheque in person at our administrative office ISKCON Food Relief Foundation

Regular Giving One can give standing instructions to his bank to regularly transfer a fixed sum to the account of ISKCON Food Relief Foundation. Also by making a Fixed Deposit and giving standing instruction to the bank to transfer the interest to IFRF Account.

Donate through Bank Transfer
If you wish to deposit the funds directly to our Account Use Wire Transfer. The Account
Information for Wire Transfer is given below

Very Important - Attention Please
To help us serve you better, please let us know the personal details and details about your
donation as soon as possible after making the donation. We would need the below details :-

Your Name – To identify and address you as a donor

Your E-Mail – To send you the soft copy of the Cash Receipt.

Your Complete Postal Address – To send you the hard copy of the cash receipt and Tax
Exemption Certificate.

Your Contact No. – To speak to you.

Your Pan Card Number – Mandatory to process the Tax Exemption Certificate.
Note:- All these details are mandatory and your donation would not be processed unless you
send us these details. We do not encourage anonymous donations as a policy.

If the donor is holding an Indian Passport, he is free to donate to IFRF. His donation will not be treated as of foreign source. Hence no need of depositing it in FCRA account. It has to be deposited in Domestic Account.

If the donor is a non-resident Indian, holding a Foreign Passport, he can donate to IFRF as it is registered under FCRA. The donation will be treated as of foreign source. Hence it has to be deposited in FCRA account.

A The Project Promoter is compensated on the basis of the results he achieves. Once the Project Promoter collects Rs1,50,000 he gets paid his incentive of 12% on the total monies collected. No other allowances for conveyance or phone bills will be paid

The Government gives ISKCON Food Relief Foundation a basic cooking charge and raw rice. However we do not receive our funding from the government on time and have a backlog of crores from them. Further to develop the project we need the support from individuals and corporates in terms of sponsorship of meals for schools, sponsorship of vehicles, kitchen equipments and land. Many corporates have included us as a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility project wherein, not only do they adopt schools for a year but they also receive impact reports and get to interact with the children and build on their employee engagement activity.